This invention relates generally to harvesting machines, such as mowers of the type having a rotary-disc cutterbar using counter-rotating discs, and, more particularly, to a crop deflector configured to uniformly distribute cut crop material behind the machine.
Crop mowers using counter-rotating disc cutter bars tend to cause the flow of cut crop material discharged from the mower to be concentrated in streams of crop generally centered behind pairs of converging-rotation discs. Such concentrations of crop flow are less problematic when the cut crop material is being gathered into windrows on the ground. However, in some instances it is desirable to uniformly disperse crop material behind the mower to enhance drying rather than to gather the crop material into a windrow. This approach is especially beneficial when harvesting green crops with higher moisture content, typically around 80%.
It would be desirable to provide a crop guide working in conjunction with the swathgate or other discharge shields in an agricultural rotary-disc mower that acts upon the crop discharge stream to disperse the crop material more uniformly behind the mower that would overcome the above problems and limitations. The benefits are magnified by a crop guide that produces a discharged crop mat of generally uniform depth that generally spans the width of the mower discharge. Further benefits would be realized by a crop guide that is easily incorporated into production rotary-disc cutterbar mowers without significant alteration of the mower design.